The quest for cliteracy

In my practice I see a lot of women who tell me: there is something wrong with me, I can't have an orgasm when I have sex with my partner. I have no problem on my own, but with my partner it just doesn't happen.

I am always surprised by how many couples are unaware of the fact that only between 20 and 25 per cent of women can achieve an orgasm by penetrative sex alone. The majority of women need clitoral stimulation to climax, which can be achieved by the touching, rubbing, caressing or pressing of the clitoris by their partner's fingers or their own. Oral sex is another highly pleasurable way because of the direct focus on the clitoris.

Another question I am often asked is, how can I find my G-spot? There has been so much hype about the elusive G-spot that women are fascinated by it and many of them would like to find it. As I have never been able to locate it myself, I can only tell them what the latest research has shown.

One study published in 2012 in The Journal of Sexual Medicine by Dr Adam Ostrzenski, titled G-Spot Anatomy: A New Discovery, received a lot of media attention, by describing the existence of the G-spot. But Dr Ostrzenski had a vested interest as he incidentally runs a cosmetic gynaecology practice that offers G-spot surgical augmentation.

In the same year a second study, headed by Dr Amichai Kilchevsky, was also published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine. The team reviewed 29 previous studies and found no evidence of any anatomical structure that constituted a G-spot. The study, which included surveys, vaginal tissue biopsies, nerve studies and ultrasounds did not find any anatomical structure on the vagina's anterior wall where the G-spot is supposed to reside.

The surveys showed a majority of women believed in the existence of a G-spot even when they never located it themselves and, that descriptions of the G-spot were largely self-reported anecdotal data.

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However a brain scan study of women in an MRI machine found that the brain showed increased activity from stimulation of the anterior vaginal area where the G-spot is supposed to reside. The author of this study, Dr Barry R. Komisaruk, suggested not calling it the G-spot but the G-zone or G-area.

Now we come to another issue: the clitoris, it turns out, is not just a little "button". Our own Dr Helen O'Connell, a urology surgeon in Melbourne published a paper in The Journal of Urology in 1998 where she argued that the clitoris is much larger than previously thought. The larger part is hidden inside the pelvic area. The external "head" is attached to the internal body which is divided into clitoral "legs" that could be as long as nine centimetres. These wrap around the vagina and the urethra and, like the penis, they swell with blood when aroused.

Last year, New York artist Sophia Wallace started work on a multimedia project which she hoped would serve to challenge the misconceptions about the clitoris. The ongoing project is called "100 Natural Laws of Cliteracy", and has been shown in an exhibition that includes a series of prints, street art and clothing, and features an interactive installation of a giant golden clitoris.

She created a large 10-feet by 13-feet installation, with a six-foot neon "Cliteracy" sign which hangs suspended from the ceiling. Wallace wanted to create something so big that anyone standing next to it would feel small. She used scientific data, historical information and references to architecture, porn, pop culture and human rights.

To get people talking about the project she plastered the walls of the streets of New York City with cliteracy-related posters and slogans. "My work was never meant to be hidden in galleries, it is about cliteracy becoming a meme and creating a new language for bodies and sexuality," she said.

Since its launch the project has gone viral, generating a lot of public support on social media. Wallace wants to take her project global – I can't wait until she arrives in Australia!